Confessions of a Christian

By Rand Tuttle

My intent in writing this book has been to provide a "wake-up call" to the Christian church community -"All is not well in the Christian world today." Far too many people have become disillusioned in their religious beliefs and are leaving the church in great numbers. They are doing so, in large measure, due to the lack of credibility they find in outdated church dogmas and traditions. In my view, the church has not maintained pace with important changes that have taken place in society, and it needs to regain its credibility by making significant changes in its outlook and practices.
In Confessions of a Christian, I present an examination of five key areas of scripture, about which I feel church dogmas are particularly bothersome or confusing to people in today's society. These dogmas, considered sacrosanct since the beginning of church history,need updating. The conclusions I present in each of these areas are aimed at making them more creditable, while at the same time preserving the validity of the scriptures, themselves.
The book is written at a level that I hope will be easily understood by the average lay Christian. My aim in addressing it to the lay population is to have its message gain widespread support in affecting needed change within the church. I realize it will likely cause some controversy, especially among the more conservative fundamentalist ranks. But such controversy, overall, should prove healthy, and spark needed debate within the church - something that has been missing for centuries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rand Tuttle
• Release date: Jan 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465743138

Book preview

Confessions

Of a Christian

Rand Wood Tuttle

Confessions of a Christian

Rand Wood Tuttle

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 Rand Wood Tuttle

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Contents

Credibility

Creation: Adam & Eve / Original Sin

Book of Revelation

Parousia: The Second Coming of Christ

Resurrection of the Dead

Timing of the Last Judgment

Ending Thoughts

Preface

My intent in writing this book has been to provide a wake-up call to the Christian church community - all is not well in the Christian world today. Far too many people have become disillusioned in their religious beliefs and are leaving the church in great numbers. They are doing so, in large measure, due to the lack of credibility they find in outdated church dogmas and traditions. In my view, the church has not maintained pace with important changes that have taken place in society, and it needs to regain its credibility by making significant changes in its outlook and practices.

In Confessions of a Christian, I present an examination of five areas of scripture, about which I feel church dogmas are particularly bothersome or confusing to people in today’s society. These dogmas, considered sacrosanct since the beginning of church history, need updating. The conclusions that I present in each of these areas are aimed at making them more creditable, while at the same time preserving the validity of the scriptures, themselves.

The book is written at a level that I hope will be easily understood by the average lay Christian. My aim in addressing it to the lay population is to have its message gain widespread support in affecting needed change within the church. I realize that it will likely create some controversy, especially among the more conservative fundamentalist ranks. But such controversy, overall, should prove healthy, and spark needed debate within the church – something that has been lacking for centuries.

Rand Wood Tuttle

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Credibility

Have you ever gone to the movies, or read a book, where you’ve been totally absorbed in the storyline and then, all of a sudden, something is said by one of the characters, or an event occurs, that just doesn’t ring true? It’s happened to me a number of times, and whenever it occurred, the story, for me, began to deteriorate. The first instance in the story may have merely aroused a sense of disappointment; a second instance, though, would cause me to begin losing interest; and after a third instance, I would abandon the story altogether. I may have been overly critical in these situations, but to me, if a story doesn’t maintain credibility, it doesn’t deserve my attention and interest.

I must confess, too, that there are certain Christian religious beliefs that I feel lack credibility as well. They give me the same feeling that a bad story plot does. Nevertheless, I view myself as being a good Christian, and I believe Christ’s appearance here on earth is the most important event that has ever taken place in the history of mankind. Christ’s message of God’s love, and his commandment for us to love one another, hold the key to our achieving genuine world peace, and the salvation of mankind. These messages have been handed down to us, in their most basic form, in the four gospels of the New Testament. The gospels provide, through Christ’s teachings and actions, a "window’ through which we can see God and learn the truth of his wisdom. I, personally, accept the gospels whole-heartedly, but when it comes to accepting some interpretations of them, by man himself, it is a very different story.

Of course, the gospels aren’t always easy to interpret definitively, as witnessed by the great variations in interpretation by the various denominations of the Christian church. It is one of the main reasons why the Christian church has split into thousands of different sects, losing its overall unity.

Once a particular interpretation is made by a denomination, it becomes set in concrete, and is staunchly defended against other denominations’ interpretations. The Catholic Church refers to its official interpretations as dogmas. But, in fact, every Christian denomination has its own set of dogmas, as well. They are dogmatic declarations that are often worded as commands to the members of their denomination to believe a specific scriptural interpretation, without protest.

All Christian denominations believe that the scriptures – both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible – were inspired by the Holy Spirit. This has led some denominations to claim that the Bible scriptures are inerrant – the word of God written down in perfect form by humans; some denominations to claim Biblical infallibility – that the Bible is free from error; and some denominations to claim that the Bible contains everything God intended mankind to know that is necessary for its salvation – a closed issue. The positions taken by the various churches have served to place protective walls around the entire range of scriptures, including the churches’ dogmas. These walls have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the faithful to either question or cause re-evaluation of dogmas. Despite several attempts to initiate modern biblical research studies, including most recently Vatican II, virtually nothing has materialized that has changed the churches’ official views on scripture since the Middle Ages. The old dogmas have remained in place now for hundreds, or even thousands, of years. And in some instances, new dogmas have been created specifically to either prop-up or justify old dogmas - a process I call evangelical fiddling.

It’s my feeling that the mainline Christian churches are living too much in the past, and they are not paying enough attention to the needs of modern day society. As I look around me, and from the results of recent studies of religious practices of people from around the world, there seem to be pronounced trends taking place in society toward apostasy and downright atheism. These trends disturb me greatly. I feel that the role of the Christian church, in helping to establish God’s kingdom here on earth, is far too important to let dissipate, or fall from existence. Steps need to be taken to reverse these trends, to win back the apostates, and to convert more adherents to Christ – for the sake of all mankind.

I confess that I am not a trained theologian, nor am I a Biblical scholar. I am a layperson who loves Christ, and loves his church. I want Christianity to succeed because it is not only God’s will, but it is also the best avenue available to mankind for achieving peace in this world.

But for Christianity to succeed, the church must make changes in its outlook, in its role in society, and in its teaching, to bring them more in line with the thinking and needs of modern day society. This will require it, in part, to refocus its attention on the basic messages contained in the four gospels; and to re-examine its traditions and dogmas, with the objective of making its position more creditable.

Having said this, in the remainder of this book, I present an examination of five areas of scripture, about which, I confess, existing church dogmas are particularly bothersome to me; and I put forth reasoning why they should be changed. I realize that I am but a voice in the wilderness, but by my taking the positions that I do in these areas, I feel it makes the Christian message far more creditable. I hope others will agree with me, and will join in to help make change a reality. The five areas of scripture are:

Creation: Adam & Eve / Original Sin

Book of Revelation

Second Coming of Christ

Raising of the Dead

Timing of the Last Judgment

Creation: Adam & Eve / Original Sin

The story of Adam and Eve, contained in the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis, is perhaps the most controversial part of the Bible. Since the publication of Charles Darwin’s book, Origin of the Species, in 1859, which set forth the Theory of Evolution, there have been debates over whether the earth, universe, and man were fully created by God in a period of six days, or whether they evolved over billions of years. Theologians have been pitted against scientists in these debates, and both sides have staunchly defended their positions. And, unfortunately, the controversy has caused many individuals who support the Theory of Evolution to become atheists.

The debates have mostly centered on technical differences between the two positions, such as on the age of the earth, whether God actually created the earth, etc, in a single 24-hour day, whether one day actually means 24-hours,